Rock 'n Roll McDonald's - woulda, coulda, shoulda

The Tribune (registration required) has an article on what the new RnR Mc'D's could have been. I saw the big unveiling of the grand plans for the new building set to open next Spring and thought, hmm, pretty cool. I didn't know then that McD's had commisioned 3 architects (including Helmut Jahn) to provide designs on the new building . . . and then ignored them all. I was measuring the new design against the old one; now that I see these designs I'm quite disappointed. Jahn's vision would have been way cool in that space. Oh well.

I kind of like their implementation. Somehow, I doubt Jahn's giant arches would have passed zoning, and the rest of the building is totally uninspired (at least it beats the vomit-inducing qualities of his State of Illinois glass color choices). The glass-enclosed version looks like it could be an air-conditioning nightmare, and the slot-car-set proposal is just silly. OK, silly can be nice... but this wasn't.

The design they picked looks like a 50's/60's McD's on Vig-O-Ro. I like that it evokes the classic lines. It may not work on human scale, it's often hard to tell with these things until they're built, and they reside in their neighborhoods.

After Rainforest Cafe and Michael Jordan's giant basketball passed zoning, I find it hard to believe that any architectural review is conducted for River North buildings. I'm still waiting for Space Mountain to pop up somewhere. You are right about the Jahn building though - I confused it with the Martin Wolf offering, which is the one I like.

Yes, the new McD's is "retro" but is that what we really need? I think the alternative submitted by Wolf could have potentially been a cornerstone that might have influenced subsequent buildings in the area . . . and perhaps provided a way out from the horrible "gimmick gulch" motif that is just dreadful.

Last edited by Kman on August 9th, 2004, 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I guess the objets d'art will wind up at a Hard Rock Cafésomewhere. Then again, when I was a World Cup volunteer back in 1994 (in the transportation division - I chaffeured people to | from matches and hotels), the Rock 'n' Roll McDonald®'s {McDonald's was a World Cup USA sponsor.} was one of the locations to which we got vouchers for free food. So, this would mean that that McDonald's had had the same motif for at least 23 years, which would be incredible for any food purveyor.

[color=#b22222] I guess the objets d'art will wind up at a Hard Rock Cafésomewhere.

According to the Trib, the memorabilia belong to the franchisee.

Am I the only one who remembers the last time the Rock N Roll McDonald's closed for good (horror of horrors, I guess), only to reopen as a bigger Rock N Roll McDonald's? Unfortunately, when it reopened, they still served the same McDonald's "food".

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